The Greenhill girls tennis team is hard at work preparing for the upcoming season.
The varsity team will be coached by Hayley Whitehead, who has been assistant coaching the team since the 2020 season and the junior varsity team will be coached by Vivek Kuppurajan, a former fourth-grade teacher from Greenhill.
The tryouts determine which players make what team and everyone’s individual ranking. Challenger matches determine rank order.
“We keep between 12-14 of the highest-ranking players for Varsity and then five for JV,” said Whitehead. “If we have more trying out than are spots, unfortunately, we have to do cuts.”
The varsity team will be led by five senior captains, Ava Klein, Brenna Norton, Pooja Sanghvi, Riya Kommineni and Sophie Schwartz, following the team’s tradition of making all seniors captains.
“It has been the tradition on our team since I have been a part of it, but I also agree that it’s a good policy,” said Whitehead. “It keeps all of our seniors accountable to being strong and empathetic leaders.”
The team ended their season last year with an undefeated conference record and placed third in the Southwest Preparatory Conference tournament.
“We tried our best, so I wouldn’t say it was rough, but in the end, the other team had a lot of strong players,” said junior Ana Blankson. “I think we’re going to be good this year and I hope that the team chemistry is going to be a lot better.”
Whitehead says she is excited to see the player’s growth heading into the season.
“I am super excited to see the process through from beginning to end and meeting all our new athletes and starting their tennis journey,” said Whitehead. “I am also really excited to work with our five senior captains, who I have all known since they were freshmen.”
